A project has been initiated to study the structure of two small heat shock proteins The sHSP's are ubiquitous among eukaryotes and are hypothesized to be a new class of molecular chaperone. The initial studies are with pea HSP 18.1 and its S. cerevisiae homologue H5P26. Both proteins are small (18.1 kDa and 23 kDa respectively) but appear to exist as large homo-oligomers. From sedimentation and size-exclusion chromatography, the oligomer of the HSP1 8.1 could be a dodecamer and the H5P26 could be a 24-mer. Preliminary experiments are promising, although there is a large background of denatured protein film which is common for this type of protein. Further work will involve fixation of the protein and/or pretreatment of the carbon film substrate.